UCC SONM 25 Year Book

UCC / School of Nursing and Midwifery

Hospital Badges given to students on Graduation. Hospitals include The North Infirmary, South Infirmary, Mercy, St. Finbarr’s Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital, Cork University Hospital

Clinical Placements, Allocation and Processes in Service Areas

Clinical placements are mandated by Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) and are based on both national (Nursing and Midwives Act of 2011) and EU legislation. Up to 1996 clinical placements were organized by the individual Schools of Nursing within each health service provider. From September 2002 undergraduate clinical placements were managed by the 3 rd level institutes in partnership with local health service providers. The Nursing Education Forum (2000) recommended that an Allocations Officer be established in each third-level institution to co-ordinate the placements for clinical learning. This Allocation Officer would liaise with Allocation Liaison Officers in the main partner health service providers to oversee clinical placement organization for the new BSc Nursing and BSc Midwifery Degree programmes. In 2002, Mr. Seán McCloskey was appointed to the role of Allocations Officer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery UCC. Initial work involved visits to all active clinical sites, outlining the key differences between the Diploma and BSc Degree programme enunciating the ‘supernumerary status’ of the degree students. Visits were conducted to hundreds of placement areas. New placement sites were developed e.g. Practice Nurse’s and School Nurses. Systems were required to manage, monitor and share information as the student population grew from the initial 220 students to over 900 students. In 2004, a placement monitoring system (ARC) was purchased to aid with the placement management. This facilitated the transition from the initial paper based excel sheets and placement plans to online plans where students can now access all their placements and related data on their mobile phones. Working through modern technology, the team support the transfer of “live” information, which is an important aspect for students, preceptors and the School.

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